Financial Update: 2015 Overview

We found ourselves in a very healthy financial position at the end of 2015 in spite of some difficult economic conditions in our country. Having anticipated that our income might not be as high as it had been in the previous two years, we adjusted our budget for 2015 accordingly and decided not to budget for any large property projects. This was to ensure that our expenditure would be covered by our income and the surpluses that we had accumulated during the previous years.

In 2015 the Lord once again, through the generosity of His people, provided the resources we needed for gospel growth in and through St James. Thank you so much for your partnership in this way. Below is a short summary of our financial positon as a church in terms of our income and expenditure for last year compared with 2014.

2015 (R)

2015 Budget (R)

2014 (R)

Income

Normal giving

6 819 244

7 000 000

6 595 463

Donations and other

1 441 354

900 000

1 509 678

Birthday thank offering

1 449 189

950 000

1 823 200

Total Income

9 709 786

8 850 000

9 928 340

minus Expenditure (Normal and Capital)

10 314 564

9 882 709

9 950 448

Net Totals

-604 777

-22 107

In both years our regular giving fell short of the budgeted amount but due to the birthday thank offering and some large donations, we still managed to exceed our budgeted income. As planned, we managed to upgrade the restrooms during 2015, which completed the renovation of the main complex. Our expenses exceeded the budgeted amount by 4.4% because we were allowed to undertake a number of unbudgeted property and capital projects because of our higher than budgeted income.

We are grateful to all who continue to support the work at St James and would ask each of you for your continued support in the year ahead. Grateful as we are for large donations, it is important that each of us, through our regular giving, share the responsibility and privilege of funding gospel work.

2016 Budget

It is always difficult to anticipate what our income will be, whereas our expenses are much more certain. As we plan for the year we ask ourselves whether our budgeted expenditure is reasonable for a church our size and with our demographics. This year we have taken average household income data from the 2011 census to see whether we should be able to cover our expences for 2016. On the assumption that we have 600 households from the extended Kenilworth area, we will be able to cover our budgeted expenditure if each household gave 5.5% of their gross income on average. This includes regular giving, special donations and the birthday thank offering.

Our budgeted expenditure for 2016 is R10 888 029. This is a 5.6% increase from our expenditure for 2015.

Worship Times/Location

Ministries

Discovering Christianity

Is a 7 week course designed specifically for the person wanting to come to terms with some of the fundamental matters of the Christian faith read more..

CSG

One of the ways in which we at St James are trying to foster growth in community is through Central Small Groups (CSG). CSG happens on Wednesday nights on the St James campus. read more..

Adult

In our mission to glorify God by introducing people of all ages, race and culture to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and help them to grow to maturity in Christ, our adult ministries are key in building community read more…

Children

The aim of our kids ministry is to present Jesus Christ to the children as He is revealed in God’s Word. And to build relationships with children so that we can help them to live according to God’s Word read more…